Easter Blessings

Today has been a remarkable day, and it's only 8:30 in the morning!

Tony and I went to the Easter Vigil at church last night, and so were not going to go to mass this morning.  However, I didn't want to just sleep in on Easter morning, so we had planned to hike up Quarry Hill and have our own little sunrise service.  The sunrise would occur at around 6:55 am, so we left the house by 6:30 and drove up there.  We were surprised along the way by how many cars seemed to be following us.  When we got to the parking lot, to our great surprise and amazement, there was a bagpiper, in full Scottish regalia, playing!  As we got out of the car, we realized that there must be some kind of organized service going on.  We joined some of the other folks who were gathering, and introduced ourselves.  They explained that they were from a Congregationalist church in Rochester, and that they do this every year.  Usually they hike up to the cemetery in the park, left from the state hospital days around the turn of the 20th century, but today, because of all the mud, ice, and snow, they decided it was too treacherous to attempt.  So we stayed in the parking lot.  Around 6:45 they handed out bulletins, and the simple service began.  There was the Gospel reading from John, several Easter hymns (some accompanied by bagpipe), and a prayer litany.  Tony and I felt that this was God surprising us with an Easter blessing that we could not have predicted or planned, and it was GOOD.  And very cold.

When we returned home, Tony took a hot shower to warm up while I made breakfast.  I had bought a tube of crescent rolls at Aldi the other day, and I decided to make cinnamon-sugar pastries out of them.  I unrolled the dough, spread each triangle with butter, then sprinkled on a cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Then I rolled each up into something that looked kind of like the Pope's hat, sprayed them with cooking spray, and sprinkled on some more sugar.  Into the oven at 350 for about 11 minutes, they were perfect.  The butter melted and sort of fried the bottoms, while the middles were buttery and just a little gooey and fluffy, while the tops were crusty with sugar.  I think they were even better than the Pillsbury Grands cinnamon rolls with frosting that my family eats at Christmas.  They were smaller, somewhat healthier without all that frosting, and much easier to eat.  I'm declaring them a win.